The Gift of Roses
by Silent Phantom gal
Summary: The Host have a bad habit of only half listening to Haruhi, and it's landed them into trouble of her mother's nightmares. Can she save her friends from the horrors she believed to be fake or will Haruhi wither.


Gasping the woman with dark brown hair bolted up right, her blood red eyes snapping open. She shook as she tried to get air into her lungs. A hand came out of the blankets next to her grabbing her wrist, making her jump and nearly falls out of the bed.

"Hey easy," The long haired man next to her said, appearing sleepily from under the blankets, "Was it the museum again?" when she nodded he sighed, face morphing into one of reassurance, " The headless statues or the portraits?"

"The statues, then they threw me into a cage of yellow roses," She whispered as her loving husband wrapped his arms around her, one hand resting on her expanded stomach. He rocked her back and forth. They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes until she relaxed a bit.

"It's alright, Ib. It's not real. They can't get you," He reassured, petting her hair, smiling as the unborn baby kicked his hand, "See She agrees with me," She smiled lightly placing her hand on top of her husband's.

"You're so sweet," She whispered kissing his cheek. He smiled lovingly.

"Ib, I don't know why you keep having these dreams, but I do know I vowed to stay by your side through whatever happens, you aren't loosing me anytime soon,"

"I love you," Ib sighed, snuggling closer to her husband.

"I love you too, Ib," Suddenly the little life surged forward, pounding on her mother's skin. They laughed, as they stroked her belly.

"We love you too," Ib said, closing her eyes, "Haruhi,"

~~~~~Ω~~~~~

I fidgeted in the blood red skirt I was in. Based on one of Tamaki's 'brilliant' plans we were in Toyama visiting an art gallery featuring the Guertena's exhibit. I mentioned that my mother had come to see it when she was little and the next day I was kidnapped by the twins. So here we are exploring an art museum together. They were all in jeans and tee shirts while I was in a knee length skirt and crisp white blouse, and the stupid hair extensions Hikaru insisted on. Oh how I wish they listened to the end of my story.

I glanced around uneasily remembering the nightmares my mother told me she used to get after visiting the exhibit, horrible dreams of the ladies dragging their frames behind her after her life, the headless statues hissing and growling as they stalked towards her, disturbingly mutated dolls chirping and laughing, and the yellow roses trapping her, slicing her with their thorns.

I never understood her night terrors that scared her well to the end of her life. She died in a car crash plain and simple but there was nothing wrong with the car. The only thing amiss in the car was a splatter of red paint on outside the passenger side door, five ruby red petals on the dashboard and the yellow rose gripped in her dead fist, cutting deep into her palm. Both my father and I drew cold at this since she couldn't stand roses unless they were blue or red, fearing and loathing yellow ones with a fiery passion. Something had happened in this exhibit, we concluded that day, but what exactly it was was a mystery to us.

I sighed as the twins were chased by Tamaki into yet another room. I followed behind, between Honey and Mori, begging for this day to be over. As we entered the room we saw that it was one long empty room except for a large mural. It was a dark collage of multiple things, I was able to make out a bundle of multicolored roses and a messy scotch of his famous Lady in Red before the lights shut off, and the ground began to shake ever so slightly.

"What the!" Hikaru yelped, as Kaoru clung to him. Honey was in Mori's arms looking scared while the rest of us feel to our eyes, unable to keep our balance. Before anyone else could say anything the ground stopped shaking. We eyed each other as the lights turned back on.

"Let's get out of the building before the next wave hits," I commanded getting to my feet. The others followed to scared to argue. We walked out of the room to find no one else in the gallery.

"Looks like everyone else got out already," Kyoya said sensibly but I felt a Shiver go down my spine. Mom always said her nightmares always circled from one painting, Fabricated World, I hadn't seen the name of that painting... I jumped as something squashed next to me. I looked to my left and saw a busted tomato. Glancing up I confirmed it was from the toppled fruit bowl in the picture above. Oh god... Her nightmares, the horrors she saw... Could it be. I walked quickly, not looking at anything but the backs of my friends. Could we keep each other safe?

We reached the doors, but when Kyoya went to open the doors they wouldn't budge. Sharing worried glances Mori and Honey went to help him but to no avail. I glanced out of one of the windows, seeing it appeared dark as if it was night time outside. I moved closer hoping to be able to see people outside. I bit back a scream as red liquid streamed out of the top, coating the window. Hearing my distress the others turned to look only to gasp. Mori moved forward and touched the substance.

"Paint?" He stated unsurely, rubbing his fingers through it. I looked closer and realized he was right it was hick red paint.

"No," I whispered backing away from the window. Before they could stop me I was running I had to see, I had to see if this was real, if that painting was really the one that plagued my mother's dreams for her whole life. Shouts from the hosts were lost in the pounding in my ears. I skidded to a stop in front of the mural, feeling my heart drop through the floor as I read the name. I also noticed the bright purple writing next to the placard.

"Haruhi!" Tamaki yelled leading the pack of Hosts into the room, as I moved closer to it. Suddenly there were thumps. They stared wide eyed as if a giant invisible stamp was stamping the floor, painted letters appeared around our feet.

Come to Play again Ib?_  
_  
"How in the world?" Kyoya breathed eyeing the mysterious letters.

"This is bad guys," I said shakily, eyeing the message on the wall, " The gallery is taking us hostage."

In thin letters on the wall, it said "_You know how to get back in Ib. We left the door open,"  
_  
"The gallery took us hostage?" Honey asked confused, " how does that work?"

"I don't know but my mother had nightmares about this place all her life and the messages are acting like I'm her,"

"How can a building take people hostage?" I shook my head at the twins' question.

"Not the building Guertena's work," I replied, leading them down the stairs, "Guertena poured his souls into his work and occasionally they wake up but they don't like humans that well,"

"And we're going deeper into the museum because?" Kyoya asked snidely, unbelieving of what I was saying. I came up to the Abyss of the Deep, one of the ropes was missing.

"My mother always said that you had to make it out of the sketchbook, to escape," I answered staring into the depth of the painting, if I was right, this was the beginning of the maze. Taking a deep breath I stepped easily into the water. Right before my head plunged in the other's started screaming again. I wondered bleakly how many more times I would here that before we escaped and what emotions would be behind it next time, as I floated slowly downwards. Lightly I landed on the top of a flight of steps. I glanced up to see a flurry of bubbles, so at least one of them followed me and the others would no doubt follow. I began walking down the steps a bit, to avoid being landed on.

"Haruhi!" The twins and Tamaki tackled me as soon as they landed.

"Get off!" I snapped pushing them off, countiueing to stride down the stairs, blood pounding in my ears. I had to get them out, I had to save them.

"What is this?" Honey gasped in amazement, looking up at the surface where we had stepped in.

"We're in the artwork," I answered shortly, as we reached the bottom of the steps, finding a blue way with two near identical portraits there.

"That's impossible, Haruhi," Kyoya reprimanded, "Tell us what's going on!"

"I am, Senpai," I snapped, choosing to go right, we had to continue going, arguing would only slow us down. The others stared at the Welcome backlettering on the hallway as We reached the end of the hallway and found a bouquet of flowers sitting in a vase on a table that was placed in front of the only door this way. There was a piece of paper folded under the vase. I grabbed the paper upholding it.

"_When the rose wilts so too will you._

_Guard your rose with your life for they are one and the same_

_Ib is Red  
Tamaki is white  
Kyoya is purple  
Hikaru is sky blue  
Kaoru is orange  
Mitsuki is pink  
Takashi is dark blue_,"

My blood ran cold at the thought. Our lives were something as fragile as a rose in a place like this? I breathed out to calm myself down. This was going to be harder than I thought.


End file.
